Connector plate



March 29, 1966 N` B. BRQDER 3,242,788

CONNECTOR PLATE Filed Dec. '7. 1964 INVENTOR.

NATHANIEL BREWSTER BRODER ATTORNEYS United States Patent() 3,242,788 CONNECTOR PLATE Nathaniel Brewster Broder, Pleasant Ridge, Mich., assignor to Truswal Systems, Inc., Detroit, Mich a corporation of Michigan Filed Dec. 7, 1964, Ser. No. 416,350 1 Claim. (Cl. 85-13) This invention relates to a connector plate useful for connecting together abutting pieces of wood which form a Wood structure, such as a wood roof truss.

In the construction of houses and the like, the abutting ends of various wood members, such as parts of the wood roof trusses and the studs and joists are frequently connected together by means of a metal yconnector or tie plate. Such yplates as are currently available frequently crack or damage the wood members and, on occasion, work free or become loose due to the relative movement between the wood members over a long period of time.

Thus, it is an object of this invention to form an inexpensive but extremely rigid connector or tie plate adapted to quickly and cleanly penetrate the wood members to avoid cracking thereof and formed to inter-lock with the bers of the wood and thus resist loosening if and when the wood parts move relative to each other.

A further object of this invention is to provide a connector plate having teeth formed by punching out sections of the plate with the teeth being formed to penetrate and inter-lock with the bers of the wood for rigidly inter-connecting the plate and the wood parts.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon reading the following description, of which the attached drawings form a part.`

In these drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front, elevational View of the plate secured to two abutting wood members.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, perspective View of a portion of the plate, and

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view, showing a single tooth, taken in the direction of arrows 3 3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of the plate showing two pair of teeth prior to bending out of the plane of the sheet and a third pair of teeth bent into operative position.

FIG. 1 illustrates a thin, rigid sheet metal, connector plate inter-connecting a wood member 11, which may be the lower chord of a truss, to a second wood member 12, which may be one of the cross braces of such a truss. The plate is provided with a large number of struck-out pairs of teeth 13, which are imbedded in the wood members by means of lirst aligning the wood members in abutting relationship and then placing the plate, teeth down, upon the wood members and thereafter pressing or hammering the plate towards the wood members to imbed the pairs of teeth 13 therein.

The teeth 14 and 14a which form each pair of teeth are formed by punching openings 15 in the plate with each tooth being formed of half of the material punched out of the opening and being bent perpendicular to the plane of the plate.

As shown in FIG. 4, the openings 15 are elongated with parallel side edges that are relatively long and with short ends. The side edges are formed by slits 16 and the teeth are separated by a diagonal slit 17 so that the teeth remain connected to and are bent upwardly from the plane of the plate along a bend line 20.

The side edges of the opening are provided with centrally located integral lugs 18 which thus form cut-out indentations 19 on the teeth just below the point 21 formed by the diagonally arranged upper free edge 22 of each tooth. The inner edges of the lugs 18 are bent in ICC the direction of the teeth (see FIG. 3) and Iform sharpi ened biting portions, due to the deformation of the metal in the punching process.

The openings, with their pairs of teeth, are arranged in two groups of parallel rows with the groups being arranged perpendicular to each other so that each pair of openings in a single row is separated by an opening of the opposite group of rows (see FIG. 4), wherein their teeth are accordingly arranged at right angles relative to each other.

In manufacturing the plate, the slits 16 and 17 are first formed and then the teeth 14 and 14a of each opening are punched and bent outwardly out of their respective openings into the coniguration shown in FIG. 2. Simultaneously, the teeth are concavely bent in crosssection so that the two teeth of each pair are concave toward each other. The bending and punching out of the teeth likewise deforms the lug edges 18 to form the complete plate.

In operation, the plate is placed upon the wood members to be joined with the points rested upon the wood members and then is forced into the wood members either by a press or rollers or by hammering so that the points 21 penetrate the wood until the entire teeth portions are imbedded in the wood and the plate is arranged in faceto-face contact with the wood surfaces. The shape of the pointed ends of the teeth coupled with the indentations 19 permit the teeth to easily enter the wood, separating the wood fibers without cracking the Wood and resulting in inter-locking with the bers. Simultaneously, the edges of the lugs 18 bite, to a limited extent, into the surface of the wood, thereby, increasing the grip between the plate and the Wood. The end result is a joint which not only connects the wood pieces but also reinforces the joint.

This invention may be further developed within the scope of the following claim. Accordingly, it is desired that the foregoing description be read as being merely illustrative of an operative embodiment of this invention and not in a strictly limited sense.

I now claim:

A connector plate, for connecting together abutting pieces of wood comprising a thin, rigid, metal sheet having a plurality of identical punched openings formed therein, each opening being narrow and elongated and having long edges and shorter ends and a tooth integral with each of said ends, said openings being aligned into two groups of parallel rows upon said sheet with one group of parallel rows extending approximately perpendicular to the other group of parallel rows, the adjacent openings of each row of one group being separated by an opening of a row of the other group, wherein each pair of teeth of one opening is arranged perpendicular to the pair of teeth of the next adjacent opening;

each tooth being formed of half of the material punched out of the sheet to form the associated opening, with the pair of teeth of each opening being identical but oppositely formed relative to each other, said teeth being concavo-convex in transverse crosssection with the respective concave surfaces of each tooth pair facing each other;

each tooth having a pair of parallel side edges arranged perpendicular to the sheet, said side edges of each tooth being of unequal length thereby to create a free end disposed at an acute angle relative to the sheet to provide a sharp point at the free end of the longer of said side edges, and a generally arcuate cut-out indentation formed in the longer of said side edges at a short distance from the sharp point thereof;

3 i the long edges of each of said openings, .at the center References Cited by the Examiner 'hefeof, each bing formed an. eXtnd P mg generally arcuate lug, Whlch 1s formed of the removed portions dening .the cut-out indentations 6491761 5/1900 saltzkom elf al' 8549 in said teeth, `and the inner edges of each of said 21586388 2/1952 Schafroth 85-49 lugs being bent out of the plane of the sheet in the 1041429 9/1963 Sanford' direction of said teeth and being sharp for biting into the pieces of Wood to be connected. EDWARD C. ALLEN, Primary Examiner. 

